Pataki: Debt ‘Crime Against Our Future’

Former New York Gov. George Pataki says the nation’s $14.3 trillion deficit is a crime against “our children,” and if it continues to skyrocket, by the end of his first term, President Barack Obama will have accumulated more debt than in the entire history of the United States prior to his presidency.

Pataki, who heads a conservative fiscal-monitoring group called “No American Debt,” also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday that Obama’s “plan” to reduce the deficit is not a plan at all — and “not worthy of a Grade B political candidate let alone the president of the United States.”

“It’s not sustainable — it is a crime against the future, our children,” Pataki said. “By the way, this administration by the end of its first four years will have run up more debt than the entire history of the United States before President Obama took office.

“We had a couple of bold groups come out with solutions,” he said. “You had the Bowles-Simpson commission — the president’s own commission came out with some very solid recommendations — he walked away from it. You had Congressman [Paul] Ryan come up with a very bold initiative to cut $6 trillion out of the deficit — instead of engaging in dialogue, the president engaged in political demagoguery and criticized the plan.

“We can’t let him get away — it's too important and we’re going to be out there to hold people accountable if they don’t deal with this,” Pataki continued.

The former New York governor said Obama needs to “engage intelligently” with House Republicans and with the Senate and try to solve the problem now.

“We haven’t seen that — we did this last year with Obamacare when it was rammed through and they wanted the American people to forget about it,” Pataki noted. “We made sure it was an issue throughout the campaign — we are going to make sure the American people understand how important dealing with the deficit is right now.”

Former New York Gov. George Pataki says the nation s $14.3 trillion deficit is a crime against our children, and if it continues to skyrocket, by the end of his first term, President Barack Obama will have accumulated more debt than in the entire history of the United...